$190.00.  That's the price of the remarkable ATS-3B.  A miniature transceiver kit by Steve Weber, KD1JV.  This rig packs six HF bands into a shirt pocket sized Altoids tin.   

 

The receiver is a sensitive single conversion superhet with a 4-pole crystal filter.  It draws a mere 35 ma.  The transmitter uses 2N7000 mosfets running class E for very high efficiency.   It draws just 610 ma to make 5 watts CW on 12 volts.  At 6 volts it still makes 1 watt out;  Perfect for use with a small powerpack.

 

This is mainly a CW rig, but PSK31 is also supported using the Pocketdigi program.

 

• There is no on-off switch, no volume control, no tuning knob and no band switch.
• The on/off function is accomplished with the battery plug. 
• You can use  volume control headphones or an amplified speaker.
• Tuning is precise using the up-down push buttons or direct CW frequency entry.
• There is a 7 segment LED and audible frequency readout in code, one digit at a time.

   

CW readout makes this radio easy to operate, even with your eyes closed.  The ultra-low power MSP-430 16 bit processor takes care of everything with just 4 buttons. 

Operation quickly becomes intuitive but a cheat sheet is good to have pasted inside the Altoids lid.  

 

Band changing is done by plugging in one of six filter modules for 80, 40, 30, 20, 17

and 15 meters.

 

Some surface mount soldering skill should be acquired before attempting a project this compact.  I used a clip-on magnifier plus a 10X hand lens for close inspection. The first few parts were tricky, then I got the soldering iron temperature right and acquired the knack.

There was just one really challenging part, the frequency synthesizer. It has 20 pins spaced 0.35 mm apart.  After that, everything was easy.  There's a real sense of satisfaction every time a part goes in right.

 

I finished construction the night before Field Day, 2008.  On FD I used it to make contacts as far from Eureka as Hawaii and New York using an indoor random wire! If you travel light, you will appreciate the elegant simplicity and rich features this rig has.  

 

Check Steve's website: